Islamabad (National Times) The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has refuted media reports claiming that party founder Imran Khan has admitted to giving a call for protest outside the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi prior to his May 9 arrest.
Speaking at a talk show on a private news channel, former National Assembly speaker and senior PTI leader Asad Qaiser said: “[Khan] didn’t say what is being reported in the media […] we [categorically] deny this.”
The party’s rebuttal comes after Khan, while speaking to journalists during a hearing of a case inside Adiala jail, acknowledged he had given a call for holding a peaceful protest outside the GHQ before his arrest in response to the “attack” on his Zaman park residence by law enforcers.
The former premier has been embroiled in a series of cases for his alleged involvement in the May 9 riots, triggered after his arrest in a graft case, which saw several military and state installations including the Lahore Corps Commander’s residence being vandalised.
The then-government, including the incumbent one, has time again blamed the PTI founder and the party’s senior leadership for orchestrating allegedly “organised” attacks on military installations.
Despite securing relief in some other cases, the ex-PM still faces as many as 12 cases related to the May 9 incidents which are being heard by an Anti-Terrorism Court.
Of the 12 cases, five cases had been registered at Sarwar Road Police Station, three cases lodged at Gulberg Police Station, and one case each at Race Course, Shadman, Mughalpura, and Model Town police stations.
Countering the media reports on Khan’s remarks, Qaiser, when pressed on reporters’ accounts of the PTI founder’s statement, stressed that lawyers who were present at the Adiala jail during the former PM’s interaction with journalists have denied the statement being attributed to him.
“Intezar Panjutha, during a press conference, has said that he was with Khan and that the comments attributed to him were not true,” the former NA speaker noted.
